AEGC 2019: From Data to Discovery – Perth, Australia 1 The Geological Survey of NSW’s approach to the MinEx Cooperative Research Centre’s National Drilling Initiative. Astrid Carlton Geological Survey of New South Wales Division of Resources and Geoscience, Department of Planning and Environment 516 High St, Maitland NSW 2320 [email protected] INTRODUCTION MinEx CRC — new tools and data for mineral exploration undercover Most of the outcropping mineral deposits of NSW have been found. New data needs to be collected to enable detection of minerals in undercover terranes. MinEx CRC (minexcrc.com.au) is a $220 million, 10-year collaboration between federal and state government, CSIRO, leading Australian universities and the minerals industry that will develop new tools and methodologies, and collect new data to enable successful mineral exploration in the 70% of the Australian continent where the prospective geology is buried under younger cover. MinEx CRC has three programs. Program 1 will develop more efficient drill methods (see Figure 1) that are cheaper, faster, safer, and more environmentally friendly. This program will both deliver technologies to improve conventional drilling and further develop the RoXplorer® Coiled Tubing (CT) drill rig which has successfully drilled down to 500 m depth. MinEx CRC aims to develop its ability so that it can drill multiple deviated holes up to 1000 m long within 10 m of the target and surveyed within 1 m. Program 2 will develop real-time downhole data collection (seismic, petrophysical and assay) and analysis technologies along with new software to integrate data into 3D models. Program 3, the National Drilling Initiative (NDI), will drill multiple holes in focus areas across the continent to map the regional geology and architecture undercover. The NDI will both deploy conventional drilling and take advantage of the new low-cost CT drilling technology to maximise the number of drill holes and data collected. The GSNSW is a major partner in the NDI, contributing approximately $16 million to the 10-year project. GSNSW will focus on pre-competitive data acquisition in five undercover extensions to known mineralised terranes. Work will include (1) acquisition of regional geophysical surveys, (2) hydrogeochemical and biogeochemical sampling, (3) geological mapping, (4) support for university student projects, (5) harvesting legacy data, and (6) CT drilling to improve the understanding of basement geology and its expression in cover sequences. Figure 1. Coil tube drill rig (source: detcrc.com.au). Focus areas are in central and western NSW GSNSW is focusing on five areas in central and western NSW around North Cobar, South Cobar, Dubbo, Mundi and Forbes (Figure 2). These areas are largely underexplored, undercover extensions of known mineralised terranes. The location and recharge of groundwater resources are also poorly understood in these regions, so GSNSW will collaborate with NSW Office of Water to assess potential groundwater resources in the areas. In August 2018, the NSW Government gazetted Mineral Allocation Areas (MAAs) over the five NSW NDI focus areas. The MAAs allow the Government to control new Exploration Licence applications within these areas and to ensure exploration titles are granted to companies with the best exploration proposals. SUMMARY The Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW) is undertaking a ten-year project to increase knowledge of basement and cover geology, mineral systems and hydrogeology in five under-explored regions in NSW. The project is part of the MinEx Cooperative Research Centre’s (MinEx CRC) National Drilling Initiative (NDI). GSNSW will acquire new regional geophysics, hydrogeochemical samples, biogeochemical samples and geological field observations, and analyse legacy data and samples before drilling. All data and mapping will be made available to the public. Key words: MinEx CRC, regional geophysics, NSW.
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AEGC 2019: From Data to Discovery – Perth, Australia 1
The Geological Survey of NSW’s approach to the MinEx Cooperative Research Centre’s National Drilling Initiative. Astrid Carlton Geological Survey of New South Wales Division of Resources and Geoscience, Department of Planning and Environment 516 High St, Maitland NSW 2320 [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
MinEx CRC — new tools and data for mineral exploration undercover Most of the outcropping mineral deposits of NSW have been found. New data needs to be collected to enable detection of minerals in undercover terranes. MinEx CRC (minexcrc.com.au) is a $220 million, 10-year collaboration between federal and state government, CSIRO, leading Australian universities and the minerals industry that will develop new tools and methodologies, and collect new data to enable successful mineral exploration in the 70% of the Australian continent where the prospective geology is buried under younger cover. MinEx CRC has three programs. Program 1 will develop more efficient drill methods (see Figure 1) that are cheaper, faster, safer, and more environmentally friendly. This program will both deliver technologies to improve conventional drilling and further develop the RoXplorer® Coiled Tubing (CT) drill rig which has successfully drilled down to 500 m depth. MinEx CRC aims to develop its ability so that it can drill multiple deviated holes up to 1000 m long within 10 m of the target and surveyed within 1 m. Program 2 will develop real-time downhole data collection (seismic, petrophysical and assay) and analysis technologies along with new software to integrate data into 3D models. Program 3, the National Drilling Initiative (NDI), will drill multiple holes in focus areas across the continent to map the regional geology and architecture undercover. The NDI will both deploy conventional drilling and take advantage of the new
low-cost CT drilling technology to maximise the number of drill holes and data collected. The GSNSW is a major partner in the NDI, contributing approximately $16 million to the 10-year project. GSNSW will focus on pre-competitive data acquisition in five undercover extensions to known mineralised terranes. Work will include (1) acquisition of regional geophysical surveys, (2) hydrogeochemical and biogeochemical sampling, (3) geological mapping, (4) support for university student projects, (5) harvesting legacy data, and (6) CT drilling to improve the understanding of basement geology and its expression in cover sequences.
Figure 1. Coil tube drill rig (source: detcrc.com.au). Focus areas are in central and western NSW GSNSW is focusing on five areas in central and western NSW around North Cobar, South Cobar, Dubbo, Mundi and Forbes (Figure 2). These areas are largely underexplored, undercover extensions of known mineralised terranes. The location and recharge of groundwater resources are also poorly understood in these regions, so GSNSW will collaborate with NSW Office of Water to assess potential groundwater resources in the areas. In August 2018, the NSW Government gazetted Mineral Allocation Areas (MAAs) over the five NSW NDI focus areas. The MAAs allow the Government to control new Exploration Licence applications within these areas and to ensure exploration titles are granted to companies with the best exploration proposals.
SUMMARY The Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW) is undertaking a ten-year project to increase knowledge of basement and cover geology, mineral systems and hydrogeology in five under-explored regions in NSW. The project is part of the MinEx Cooperative Research Centre’s (MinEx CRC) National Drilling Initiative (NDI). GSNSW will acquire new regional geophysics, hydrogeochemical samples, biogeochemical samples and geological field observations, and analyse legacy data and samples before drilling. All data and mapping will be made available to the public. Key words: MinEx CRC, regional geophysics, NSW.
GSNSW’s approach to MinEx CRC NDI Carlton
AEGC 2019: From Data to Discovery – Perth, Australia 2
Figure 2. The five areas where NSW MinEx CRC activities will be focused.
THE NDI IN NSW GSNSW activities in each of the NSW MinEx CRC NDI areas will occur in three main stages (Figure 3): (1) acquisition, data synthesis, analysis and planning (green), (2) drilling (yellow) and (3) data synthesis, analysis and release (blue).
Figure 3. Indicative timeline of MinEx CRC NDI stages for each area. Acquisition, data synthesis, analysis and planning Multiple techniques will be used to collect data to improve geological and hydrological interpretations before drilling. Legacy drillcore will be incorporated into the analysis. Core that is held by GSNSW will be examined, resampled and analysed where required, and scanned using the HyLogger™ hyperspectral scanner (Schodlok M.C. et al., 2016). Petrophysical measurements of core samples will be used to constrain interpretation of regional geophysics and downhole measurements from CT drilling. Biogeochemistry will be used to test the chemical properties of the soil, rock and groundwater by sampling plants with deep tap-roots such as cypress pines (Hill et al. 2008). Approximately 50 elements will be analysed. Samples from water bores and water monitoring bores will be analysed for salinity, pH and approximately 40 elements. Geological mapping on outcrop in and around the NDI areas will be used to constrain interpretation under cover. Transported and residual soils will also be mapped.
New geophysical surveys will fill gaps in ground gravity, airborne magnetic and radioelement coverage over and around the NDI areas to aid interpretation (Figure 4). New regional airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys will be acquired. All data collected in the first phase will be used to inform the design of the drilling programs.
Figure 4. Proposed geophysical survey areas. Drilling GSNSW plans to use the RoXplorer® CT drill rig, that was developed by the Deep Exploration Technologies CRC to undertake drilling through up to 500 m of cover and into basement, on a 5 km by 5 km grid. As well as providing information on basement geology and mineral systems, it is anticipated that this approach will provide researchers with cover samples that can be used to determine the expression of the basement geology within the cover and identify key sampling interfaces for mineral exploration. Drilling will avoid environmentally and culturally sensitive areas. Data synthesis, analysis and release After drilling is completed for each area there will be an initial data release. Final data will be released after comprehensive analysis of the regional geology, structure, hydrogeology and mineral systems. Cobar MinEx AEM survey The first geophysical survey related to the MinEx CRC program in NSW will be an AEM survey over the Greater Cobar Basin, including the north and south Cobar NDI areas. This will be the largest AEM survey area ever flown in NSW. Lines will be flown east-west up to 5 km apart (Figure 5). This line spacing is wider than for conventional mineral exploration surveys however, AEM with 20 km line spacing from Geoscience Australia’s AusAEM Survey (AusAEM eCat 124092) has demonstrated that regional scale AEM can provide valuable geological data. AEM lines will be flown over existing seismic lines, water bores and drillholes to constrain geological and hydrogeological interpretation.
South Cobar
North Cobar
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028
Mundi
Forbes
Dubbo
GSNSW’s approach to MinEx CRC NDI Carlton
AEGC 2019: From Data to Discovery – Perth, Australia 3
Figure 5. Proposed AEM survey lines over Cobar areas. The AEM data will aid the mapping of conductive Cenozoic overburden, faults, aquifers, groundwater, pisolitic iron-filled palaeo-channels, palaeo-valleys and basement geology.
CONCLUSIONS MinEx CRC aims to deliver cheaper, faster, safer, more environmentally friendly and efficient drilling, new real-time sensing technologies, and new data, concepts and methodologies for mineral exploration in covered terranes. It will provide new and improved datasets and expand the understanding of mineral systems and hydrogeology in five under-explored areas of central and western NSW. For more information on MinEx CRC in NSW visit: https://www.resourcesandgeoscience.nsw.gov.au/miners-and-explorers/geoscience-information/minexcrc
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author publishes with the permission of the Executive Director, Geological Survey of NSW, Department of Planning and Environment.
REFERENCES Geoscience Australia, 2018, AusAEM Year 1 NT/QLD: TEMPEST® airborne electromagnetic data an Em Flow® conductivity estimates, eCat Id 124092.
Hill, S.M., Greenfield, J.E., Gilmore R.G. and Reid, W.J., 2008, Guide for mineral esploration through and within regolith in the southwestern Thomson Orogen, New South Wales. Schodlok M.C., Whitbourn L., Huntington J., Mason P, Green A., Berman M., Coward D., Connor P., Wright W., Jolivet M., and Martinez R., 2016, HyLogger-3, a visible to shortwave and thermal infrared reflectance spectrometer system for drill core logging: functional description: Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 63, 929–940.
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